SIPA: School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University

SIPA Faculty in the Media 2007

The faculty of the School of International and Public Affairs are frequently called upon by the news media to provide analysis and commentary on current events. Listed below are a few recent examples of our faculty contributions to reporting on critical public policy issues. If the articles are available to the general public, we have provided a direct link; if not, the link will lead to the publication's homepage.

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Jeffrey Sachs on War and Poverty
Black Star News, December 26, 2007
Byline: Jeffrey Sachs, professor of Economics and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
“Many of today’s war zones—including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Sudan—share some basic problems that lie at the root of their conflicts. They are all poor, buffeted by natural disasters and have rapidly growing populations that are pressing on the capacity of the land to feed them.”

Richard Clarida on the U.S. Dollar’s Fate
The New York Sun, December 19, 2007
The dollar’s recent fall might signal that the ‘fiat’ money system, which has been in place since America departed from the gold standard in 1971, was something of a mistake. Richard Clarida, a professor of economics at Columbia University, disagreed. “I think the adjustment of the dollar to date is understandable, I think it’s appropriate, I think on balance it’s stabilizing for the global economy,” he said.

Stephen Sestanovich on Russia by the Numbers
The Wall Street Journal, December 17, 2007
Byline: Stephen Sestanovich, professor of international diplomacy at Columbia University
After meeting with leaders of the European Union recently, Vladimir Putin boasted the surging Russian economy has overtaken that of Italy, and will overtake France in 2009. Such astonishing claims have become commonplace in statements by Russian officials, who insist Russia will become the world’s fifth largest economy by 2020.

Jeffrey Sachs on Bali Climate Deal
International Herald Tribune, December 16, 2007
On the surface, the accomplishment of the two-week UN climate conference that concluded in Bali seems meager. Thousands of delegates representing nearly 200 nations agreed to talk more, laying out a road map for negotiations that will in theory produce a climate treaty by 2009. “My starting point is a sigh of relief that we’re on the right track, the fact that there is a Bali action plan is an important development,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

Steven Cohen on Bloomberg’s Gun Survey for Candidates
The New York Sun, December 10, 2007
Mayor Bloomberg is asking all presidential candidates to complete a 16-question survey on gun trace data, gun trafficking, and punishment levels for breaking gun laws. Steven Cohen, a professor of public administration at Columbia University said, “gun control is an emotional issue in America that has divided urban and rural voters.”

Gary Sick on Iran Following Late Shah’s Strategy
Financial Times, December 5, 2007
Part of the Shah’s defensive strategy was to develop a nuclear “surge capacity” – the know-how and infrastructure to build a bomb at short notice if and when the need for the ultimate deterrent arose.  “Iran’s rulers are following a strategy very much like that of the Shah,” said Gary Sick, a senior research scholar at Columbia University. He blames the Bush administration for not adopting a negotiating strategy with Iran over its nuclear ambitions that would take into account Iran’s strategic concerns.

Stephen Sestanovich on Vladimir Putin
Time Magazine, December 4, 2007
Stephen Sestanovich, a Columbia University professor who was the State Department’s special adviser for the new Independent States of the former Soviet Union under President Clinton says, “Putin managed to play on the resentment that Russians everywhere were feeling.” Indeed, by the time Putin took over in late 1999, there was nowhere to fall but up.

Ester Fuchs on Giuliani Weeding out Welfare Fraud
New York Magazine, December 3, 2007
“Giuliani’s welfare people matched the city data with the State Department of Labor data and basically found that people were working already,” said Ester Fuchs, a Columbia University professor of public affairs. “So they found fraud, sent out letters, people left the rolls and they were instantly employed. Weeding out fraud is an inarguable achievement, but Giuliani makes it sound as if he also created a robust job program.”

Jeffrey Sachs on Ending Famine in Malawi
The New York Times, December 3, 2007
Malawi hovered for years at the brink of famine. Almost five million of its thirteen million people needed emergency food aid. “The donors took away the role of the government and the disasters mounted,” said Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University economist who lobbied Britain and the World Bank on behalf of Malawi’s fertilizer program and who has championed the idea that wealthy countries should invest in fertilizer and seed for Africa’s farmers.

Steven Cohen on Questions Giuliani Doesn’t Want
Associated Press, November 30, 2007
The revelation that security costs for Giuliani’s trysts with Judith Nathan were spread to obscure New York accounts exposes the former mayor to harsh questions his campaign wanted badly to avoid about character, truthfulness and a penchant for secrecy. “The biggest problem for him, if you look at the New York papers today, it’s all pictures of Rudy and Judi in the Hamptons,” said Steven Cohen, a public administration professor at Columbia University. “I’m sure that’s not what he wants to see in the press right now while he’s pushing his campaign.”

Steven Cohen on Bloomberg Meeting with Nancy Soderberg
The New York Sun, November 27, 2007
Steven Cohen, a professor of public administration at Columbia University, cautioned against reading too much into the reported meetings between Mr. Bloomberg and Ms. Soderberg, a foreign policy adviser in the Clinton administration and a critic of the war in Iraq. “I would never assume that because he is consulting with someone he is necessarily going to follow that person,” he said.

Sanjay Reddy on Poverty Estimates
Financial Times, November 19, 2007
Byline: Sanjay Reddy
“The problems with poverty estimates go well beyond the inappropriate nature of the conversion factors used to make such adjustments across currencies, and ultimately reside in the failure to specify an international poverty line that are meaningful in the sense that they correspond to the real cost of achieving basic human requirements."

Steven Cohen on Rudy Giuliani’s Ad Campaign
Associated Press, November 14, 2007
Giuliani’s recent commercial plays to one of his strengths, New York’s resurgence while he was mayor. During his term, crime in New York decreased by sixty percent and welfare rolls shrank by more than half. Yet critics say he doesn’t deserve all the credit for the city’s comeback. “It wasn’t done in Rudy’s first term, it was done over the course of twenty-five years of people working to rebuild what had fallen apart,” said Steven Cohen, a public affairs professor at Columbia University.

Joseph Stiglitz on the U.S. Dollar’s Fall from Grace
Bloomberg News, November 14, 2007
“The global reserve system is fraying; it’s falling apart,” said Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-laureate economist at Columbia University. “The change in mindset about the use of the dollar in reserves and the movement of the dollar out of the reserves will continue to exert downward pressure.”

Jeffrey Sachs on Social Marketing
The Boston Globe, November 11, 2007
In the last couple of years there has been a sharp backlash against the philosophy of “social marketing” that has pushed its practitioners’ off-balance and led economists to take sides. High-profile development scholars, including Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, have joined a chorus of criticism and several economic studies have chipped away at the rationale behind social marketing. “You can’t expect people with no money to buy bed nets,” said Sachs.

Lincoln Mitchell on Georgian Parliament
International Herald Tribune, November 9, 2007
The Parliament in the republic of Georgia on Friday approved a decree by President Mikheil Saakashvili to keep the nation under a state of emergency for as long as fifteen days, resisting calls from inside and outside the country to restore personal and political rights. Lincoln Mitchell, a Columbia University professor who closely follows Georgian politics said, “to ensure a chance at a fair election Imedi-TV would have to be allowed to broadcast as an independent station.”

Gary Sick on Delicate Balance in Pakistan
National Public Radio, November 7, 2007
Gary Sick, a professor of Middle East politics at Columbia University said, “Washington has long run a risk by betting everything on Musharraf, making him the center of U.S. security strategy in the region. That strategy could backfire if the situation in Pakistan spins out of control.”

Richard Clarida on Tax Cuts
The New York Times, October 31, 2007
“You’re going to hear a lot about taxes over the next two years. Some of the things you hear will be true. Others will be less true… ’A dirty little secret is that the corporate income tax used to raise a fair amount of revenue,’ says Richard Clarida, a Columbia University economist and former Treasury Department official under Mr. Bush.”

Maria Victoria Murillo on Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
The Washington Post, October 29, 2007
The presidency of Argentina was handed from husband to wife, as first lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner crushed thirteen opposition candidates. The main difference between the outgoing and incoming presidents is one of style. “He has appeared very domestically oriented, whereas she appears much more prone to talk to the outside world and to engage other people in conversation,” said Maria Victoria Murillo, a Latin American political scientist at Columbia University.

Robert Jervis on Restricting Intel Estimates
Associated Press, October 26, 2007
Robert Jervis, a Columbia University professor who chairs an advisory panel for the CIA on the declassification of historical documents said, “Releasing intelligence estimates increases the likelihood their contents will be used for political rather than foreign policy purposes, and influences how they are worded.”

Jeffrey Sachs on James Hansen
TIME Magazine, October 26, 2007
Byline: Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
James Hansen is the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where his team researches the physics and forecasting of climate change. In June 1988, he became the first leading scientist to explain global warming to the U.S. Congress and the American people. Over the past two decades, Hansen’s concerns for the world’s future have only mounted. He has therefore recommended a decisive shift to a new sustainable economy with much lower emissions of carbon dioxide.

Robert Y. Shapiro on Bernard Kerik
Associated Press, October 25, 2007
The criminal investigation of New York’s former police commissioner is on track to crash headlong into the GOP presidential race and Rudy Giuliani’s final push for the nomination. “It will matter significantly if his opponents bring it up,” said Robert Y. Shapiro, Columbia University political science professor. “And, they very well might, especially if he’s the front-runner.”

Joseph Stiglitz on U.S. Housing
Bloomberg News, October 22, 2007
“A slowdown in the U.S. economy may be prolonged as a house-price drop cuts off a source of funding for consumers,” said Joseph Stiglitz a professor at Columbia University. “The average price of housing in the U.S. is already falling,” he said. “That will be a big problem for the U.S. and if it is a problem for the U.S., it’s going to be a big problem for the global economy.”

Ester Fuchs on PlaNYC Moving Forward
Crain’s New York Business, October 20, 2007
Mayor Bloomberg’s administration is laying the groundwork to codify many of PlaNYC’s goals into city law without the help of Albany lawmakers. Ester Fuchs, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, argues “that the city and upstate economies are so different that the city should be allowed to set its own standards to make the energy planning workable.”

Robert Barnett on China’s Anger over U.S. Honor for Dalai Lama
National Public Radio, October 16, 2007
“I think it is a big question for China that there seems to be a continuing inability to gauge how Tibetans think, and how to win them over,” says Robert Barnett, professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University. “They need to get over the idea that you can buy people’s loyalty by improving the economy and improving cities and so on. It just isn’t working out for them,” he says.

Richard Clarida on Federal Reserve Policy
Bloomberg News, October 16, 2007
Richards Clarida, professor of economics and international affairs at Columbia University, talks about the outlook for Federal Reserve monetary policy and the U.S. dollar, the state of the credit markets and inflation concerns in the U.S.

Dorian Warren on Noose found on Columbia Campus
Newsday, October 13, 2007
Dorian Warren, a Columbia University professor who focuses on racial politics, said “the seeming spike in noose hangings have come at a crucial time when Americans are grappling with anxiety about immigrants of color and a growing economic disparity.”

Jeffrey Sachs on Impact of Nobel Peace Prize Win
The New York Times, October 13, 2007
“I believe there are many places that are in, or on the edge of, conflict because of climate change already, and this prize is a warning that on our current trajectory of climate change the risk will get worse-these will be the conflicts of the 21st century,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Joseph Stiglitz on Chavez’s Plan for South American Bank
Associated Press, October 11, 2007
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s plan to create a regional lending bank will be beneficial for South America. “It is a good thing to have competition in most markets, including the market for development lending,” the Columbia University professor said. He said the World Bank and International Monetary Fund tend to lay down many conditions that “hinder the development effectiveness.”

John H. Coatsworth on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Lecture
WCBS NewsRadio, September 21, 2007
“It is our obligation at SIPA to give our students the broadest possible variety of views. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s views must be challenged and challenged in a forum that will allow him no recourse but to respond with reason, logic, and facts,” said John H. Coatsworth, Acting Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Ester Fuchs on Livable Cities
The Brian Lehrer Show, September 3, 2007
Ester Fuchs, professor of international and public affairs and political science at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and former advisor to Mayor Bloomberg discussed the national picture for the urban middle class along with the mayors from Atlanta and Washington.

Jeffrey Sachs on Robert Zoellick
Bloomberg News, August 31, 2007
World Bank President Robert Zoellick is an improvement over his predecessor Paul Wolfowitz, said Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, a prominent advocate for aid to developing countries. Sachs urged Zoellick to redirect the World Bank’s focus on corruption in aid-receiving nations to providing practical solutions on hunger and poverty.

Charles Calomiris on Standard & Poors
Bloomberg News, August 31, 2007
Standard & Poor’s named Deven Sharma to replace Kathleen Corbet as president after lawmakers and investors criticized the credit rating company for failing to judge the risks of securities backed by subprime mortgages. S&P earns fees for rating so-called structured notes, helping borrowers put together debt securities in a way that will get the highest possible credit rankings while allowing managers of the securities the most profit, according to Charles Calomiris, the Henry Kaufman professor of financial institutions at New York’s Columbia University.

Richard Clarida on Credit Markets and the Fed
The Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2007
Markets and lenders are unsure of the value of the complex, opaque securities hold and need to sell or use as collateral… “This system has never been stress-tested until now,” says Richard Clarida of Columbia University and Pacific Investment Management Co., the West Coast money manger.

Lisa Anderson on Academic Freedom
Inside Higher Education, August 15, 2007
A greater percentage of social scientists today feel that their academic freedom has been threatened than was the case during the McCarthy era. Lisa Anderson just finished 10 years as dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public affairs, and the last few years of her tenure found her among the Middle Eastern studies scholars who were regularly criticized by some pro-Israel groups for alleged anti-Israel or anti-American bias. “The attacks have deeply damaged the research community,” Anderson said.

Joseph Stiglitz on Indonesia’s Economic Growth
Bloomberg News, August 15, 2007
Indonesia’s economy grew the fastest in more than two years in the second quarter as exports rose and lower interests rates fueled spending and investment. That should encourage the government to aim for a rate of economic expansion similar to China and India, according to Joseph Stiglitz. “Growth is very strong, though not as strong as the 10% of China and India,” Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate and Columbia University economics professor said. “If one can get broad-based sustained growth of 5 to 6% there is no reason why you can’t go up the next tier.”

Stuart Gottlieb on Prosecuting Terrorists
The New York Times, August 13, 2007
Byline: Stuart Gottlieb, Professor of counterterrorism at the Graduate School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University
Wesley K. Clark and Kal Raustiala argue that “terrorism should be fought first with information exchanges and law enforcement,” and that terrorists “ought to be pursued, tried and convicted in the courts.” Bringing terrorists to justice will always be a priority. But in the age of catastrophic terrorism it is equally important to ensure that attacks do not occur, and that will require tools of prevention, not just prosecution.

Robert Shapiro on Republican Party
The Associated Press, August 8, 2007
The war is the reason why some Republicans are straying from the party and other Republicans are sticking by Bush’s side. A few percentage points of Republican voters have discarded the Republican label over their opposition to the war. “It is unclear whether these Republicans have abandoned the Republican Party for good, or whether they do not want to be labeled ‘Republican’ when they talk to pollsters,” said Robert Shapiro, a Columbia University political science professor who specializes in public opinion and politics.

Sylvia Hewlett on Women in the Workforce
The New York Times, August 5, 2007
Twenty-something women have surged past young men on the salary scale in New York and other large cities, according to recent news reports. But these fast starters may find themselves blindsided as they progress into their 30s and 40s since 90% of the top earners at Fortune 500 companies are men. Sylvia Hewlett has made it her mission to change that. Dr. Hewlett directs the gender and public policy program at Columbia University. She has authored several books about women in the workforce and has persuaded 34 companies employing 2.5 million people to participate in a ‘Hidden Brain Drain’ task force.

Joseph Stiglitz on Mortgage Market
Reuters, August 2, 2007
“The turbulence in the U.S. subprime mortgage market could spread to other sectors in the economy, especially as growth momentum is already weak,” said Joseph Stiglitz former chief economist of the World Bank. “The risks could spread to sectors wider than the subprime, but how wide is difficult to tell. It’s a broad problem,” Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate economist and Columbia University professor said.

Steven Cohen on NY Congestion Pricing Plan
Grist, July 28, 2007
Byline: Steven Cohen, Director of the Master of Public Administration Program in Environmental Science and Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs.
After overcoming numerous obstacles in Albany, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s controversial congestion-pricing plan finally appears to be slowly moving forward. Thanks to a last-minute deal between Bloomberg and the leaders of the state Assembly, it is almost certain that NY will receive a $500 million federal grant to fund the equipment and upgrade mass transit in order to begin the program. Many complaints have been leveled against congestion pricing, the most common being that any environmental benefits the program would provide would not make up for the cost that consumers will be forced to bear. But what critics fail to realize is that congestion pricing is an economic issue. The time that drivers spend stuck in traffic is time that could be used making money.

Aldo Civico on Paramilitarism in Columbia
Inter-American Dialogue, July 25, 2007
“Paramilitarism in Columbia has been more then just an umbrella of blood-thirsty right-wing armed groups. The phenomenon is a much deeper one; it is the expression of corrupt regional political and economic elites who have been infiltrating regional and national democratic institutions. According to recent studies, between 1999 and 2003 the paramilitaries have transformed the political map of 12 departments of Columbia,” said Aldo Civico, director of the Columbia University Center for International Conflict Resolution.

Jeffrey Sachs on the Poverty Trap
The New York Times, July 23, 2007
“I applaud Collier’s excellent new book, Bottom Billion and thank him for including kind references to my own work therein. The very idea of the poverty trap as being critical in Africa, a concept at the core of The Bottom Billion, has likewise been a core theme of my own writings on Africa.  For my part, I have worked hard to introduce in the academic literature and policy discussions the idea that poverty is involved in vicious circles related to violence, natural resources, landlockedness and other geographic factors, and poor governance,” says Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Steven Cohen on Rudy Giuliani
The Associated Press, July 22, 2007
“He did some things in the first couple of years in particular that he should get some credit for, particularly the continuing reduction in crime, but I don’t think he was an unusually good mayor,” said Steven Cohen, a public affairs professor at Columbia University. “He was actually a capable guy and did a good job,” Cohen said. “But I think he had the tendency to see himself as the only person who was smart in the room.”

Gary Sick on Relations Between U.S. and Iran
The New York Times, July 19, 2007
“Iranians refer to their new political radicals as ‘neoconservatives,’ with multiple layers of deliberate irony,” notes Gary Sick, an Iran specialist at Columbia University, adding: “The hotheads around President Ahmadinejad’s office and the U.S. foreign policy radicals who cluster around Vice President Cheney’s office, listen to each other, cite each other’s statements and god each other to new excesses on either side.”

Ester Fuchs on Congestion Pricing
WNYC Radio, July 16, 2007
Ester Fuchs, professor of international and public affairs and political science at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and former advisor to Mayor Bloomberg, weighs in on the Mayor’s 11th hour push for his congestion pricing plan. “The proposal on the table is to set-up a commission which allows some details to be banged out after Monday. The opportunity to work out the issues of boundaries, zones, fees, and money to spend on mass transit should allow Sheldon Silver and his constituents to agree to congestion pricing.”

Steven Cohen on Bloomberg Campaign
New York Daily News, July 16, 2007
“You can mention in a kind of push-poll way that he’s done this, this and this,” said Steven Cohen, professor of public administration at Columbia University. “But it’s another thing for him to have a few hundred million dollars of advertising saying that in emotional terms and really registering with people.”

Aldo Civico on Medellín’s Mayor
The New York Times, July 15, 2007
Sergio Fajardo has the simple idea that the most beautiful buildings should be in Medellín’s poorest areas. Mr. Fajardo hired renowned architects to design and assemblage of luxurious libraries and other public buildings in the city’s most desperate slums. “Fajarado is making a long-term wager by carving out a foothold for the state in areas that were neglected for years,” said Aldo Civico, who as director for the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University has done extensive fieldwork on Medellín’s violence. “You need to start a process of transformation somewhere.”

Xiaobo Lu on Perilous Chinese Goods
The Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2007
Xiabo Lu, a political science professor at Columbia University, says that once institutions are in place, the Chinese will gradually form certain ‘ethical rules of the game.’ “Right now, it is everything goes-precisely because, yes, everything goes- no good credit checking system, no well-placed fear of violating good norms, one can get away with cheating,” Mr. Lu explains.

Lisa Anderson on Col. Moammar Gadhafi
The Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2007
Libya’s improving diplomatic relationship with the West has disguised the trouble Col. Moammar Gadhafi faces at home. A protest over Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad reportedly gave way to an anti-Gadhafi rally, with police stations attacked. “Gadhafi has lost his position at the forefront of Arab political activism to Islamic fundamentalists,” says Lisa Anderson, a Middle East expert and dean of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Steve Cohen on City Council Speaker Christine Quinn
The New York Sun, July 9, 2007
A barrage of attacks and a civil rights lawsuit against the City Council speaker could actually bolster Christine Quinn’s anticipated mayoral aspirations and help her emerge as a strong leader known for standing up for her convictions, political observers say. A professor of public administration at Columbia University, Steven Cohen, said “if the city were as racially divided as it was under Mayor Giuliani, Mr. Barron’s combative stance against Ms. Quinn might be more potent. But Ms. Quinn has a good reputation throughout the city and among African Americans.”

Rashid Khalidi on Palestinian Struggle for Statehood
The New York Times, July 8, 2007
The British succeeded in playing one against the other, using ‘divide and rule’ tactics, as Rashid Khalidi points out in his book, The Iron Cage: The story of the Palestinians Struggle for Statehood. The Palestinian revolt fell apart in what Mr. Khalidi, a professor at Columbia University, calls a failure of leadership. “We are left with a picture,” he writes  “of a Palestinian elite that was hopelessly divided internally, and many of whose prominent members had a variety of more or less entangling connections to the British overlords of the country, while some had links to the Zionists as well.”

Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya on WTO Talks
The Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2007
Byline: Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya
The WTO talks between the G-4 nations have collapsed again. This time, the only surprising twist was that U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab put the blame primarily on India and secondarily on Brazil.

Jeffrey Sachs on Green Revolution in Africa
The Associated Press, July 4, 2007
Jeffrey Sachs, professor of economics at Columbia University, said the southern African country of Malawi had successfully improved its agricultural sector by subsidizing fertilizer and high-yield seed for the poorest farmers. He said that after two good harvests, Malawi is due to have another bumper crop this year, proving that a ‘green revolution’ of the kind seen in India and China decades ago is possible in Africa too.

Kimberly Marten on Putin’s Anti-US Tirade
FT Financial Times, July 2, 2007
“The Putin administration is trying to build up a sense of foreign threats to improve the popularity and ensure the continuation of his regime after the 2008 elections,” Kimberly Marten of Columbia University’s Harriman Institute said.

Steve Cohen on Bloomberg’s Switch to Independent Status
Newsday, July 2, 2007
“Most likely he just wants to remain in play. He’s a lame-duck mayor, and the renewed publicity over his shift to being an independent keeps him in the news, increases his political currency, and gives publicity to the city,” says Columbia University professor of public administration Steven Cohen. “It’s all a gain for him, pure gain,” says Cohen.

Jeffrey Sachs on Sao Tome
The New York Times, July 2, 2007
A decade ago, geologists found signs that one of Africa’s least-known countries, the tiny island nation of Sao Tome and Principe, might hold a king’s ransom in oil. In recent years, a steady stream of activists like the Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs have gone there to make sure that any energy boom would benefit its 150,000 people, rather than politicians and companies. “Oil can be a blessing or a bane for a country,” Mr. Sachs said. “The theory was to help Sao Tome avoid the resource curse.”

Ester Fuchs on Bloomberg’s Political Agenda
New York Post, June 18, 2007
Columbia University Professor Ester Fuchs, who served as a special advisor to the mayor in his first term, suggested Bloomberg has a different agenda: to thrust urban concerns into the forefront of the national debate. “Mayor Bloomberg has done more for city issues to resonate as national issues than any other mayor since La Guardia,” she said.

Joseph Stiglitz on Free Markets and Freedom
The New York Times, June 14, 2007
When President Bush declared last week that political openness naturally accompanied economic openness, his counterparts in Beijing and Moscow were not the only ones to object. Liberal and conservative intellectuals have backed away from the century-old theory that democracy and capitalism need each other to survive. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate now at Columbia University, agrees that one of the biggest changes since the early 1990s is an appreciation of the complexity and limits of democracy.

Chuck Waterfield on Citi Microfinance Donor Fund
Dow Jones, June 11, 2007
The giant investment bank plans to launch a charitable fund which individuals and organizations can make donations to microfinance institutions. These financial institutions offer loans and other services to hardscrabble entrepreneurs in developing countries who don’t have access to banks. “Citi’s focus on microfinance institutions that are approaching self-sufficiency and the size of its grants make good sense,” says Chuck Waterfield, a consultant to microfinance institutions and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Jeffrey Sachs on Global Poverty
The New York Times, June 10, 2007
Sub-Saharan Africa, despite decades of Western aid, has had little growth, more wars and new epidemics. Some big-name optimists remain, most notably Jeffrey Sachs, whose best-selling book, “The End of Poverty,” argues that the West knows how to end extreme poverty by 2025.

W. Bentley MacLeod on Income Inequality
The New York Times, June 10, 2007
Income inequality is a hot topic in politics and economics. One big change in recent decades has been a rise in performance-based pay. “Through the 1970s, thanks in part to unions that negotiated wages collectively, people with different abilities and capabilities were frequently paid the same amount for doing similar jobs,” said W. Bentley MacLeod, an economics professor at Columbia.

Robert Jervis on Missouri State Scholars
Bloomberg News, June 8, 2007
Missouri State University got its start a century ago producing schoolteachers. These days, it has a new specialty: turning out acolytes of President George W. Bush’s foreign policy. “As a rule, Missouri State scholars are quicker to favor aggressive military policies than their counterparts at many other schools,” said Robert Jervis, a professor at Columbia University who specializes in foreign policy decision-making.

Lisa Anderson on Iraqi Scholars
Bloomberg News, June 8, 2007
Professor Abdul Sattar Jawad fled Baghdad that day after he saw a carload of men with machine guns pointed at his house. He didn’t want to become one of the 250 Iraqi scholars killed since 2003. “This is an imaginative and inventive approach to a heartbreaking problem: the destruction of what was once one of the Middle East’s strongest academic communities,” said Lisa Anderson, dean of Columbia University’s School of International and Pubic Affairs.

Edward Luck on Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad
The New York Times, June 6, 2007
One by one, the ambassadors at an unusually jolly diplomatic dinner lat month rose to pay tribute to the new American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad. “I’ve heard universally good things about Khalilzad from ambassadors,” said Edward Luck, a professor of international affairs at Columbia who has followed the United Nations for more than three decades.

Joseph Stiglitz on War Finance
The Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2007
War finance is not rocket science. Wars are usually too costly to pay for exclusively out of taxation, particularly since they often depress economic activity, reducing tax revenues precisely when government expenditure is rising. So wars tend to be financed by a mix of new taxation and borrowing. That observation may surprise those readers who have seen alarmist estimates of the total cost of the war in Iraq, like the $2.2 trillion figure recently calculated by the economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Sanjay Reddy on Measuring the Word’s Poor
The Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2007
“Our dream is a world free of poverty” is a slogan at the World Bank. One challenge facing Paul Wolfowitz’s replacement at the bank’s helm is how to count the world’s poor so that we might know if that dream is approaching reality. But to some economists, the World Bank’s definition of poverty is flawed, arbitrary and tends toward suppressing the numbers. Sanjay Reddy, a Columbia University economist and longtime critic of the bank’s counts, says, “If their dream is a world free of poverty, they ought to know how to measure it.” Professor Reddy recently had a letter published in the Financial Times which further explored the issue of world poverty.

Sylvia Hewlett's book "Off-Ramps and On-Ramps"
FT Financial Times, May 24, 2007
"Many highly qualified women take a detour from their career paths because of personal responsibilities. But when they want to resume their jobs, they may find themselves stalled. Developing workplace policies and practices that help them get back on track is the focus of Sylvia Ann Hewlett's new book, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps.

Robert Jervis on Iraq Funding Bill
USA Today, May 24, 2007
Democrats aiming for the White Hose in 2008 are being forced to take sides on an issue that tripped up their 2004 nominee: whether to support continued funding of the Iraq war. The party’s Senate candidates are in a bind because the bill they’ll vote on does not include a timetable for bringing U.S. troops home. “The pressures for the primary pull you in one direction. The pressures for the general election pull you in another,” says political scientist Robert Jervis of Columbia University.

Eric Verhoogen on Effect of Globalization on Low-Wage Workers
The Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2007
Like millions of other low-wage workers here, Hermenegildo Flores was supposed to benefit from Mexico’s decision to open its economy to foreign trade and investment in the 1990s. As U.S. companies boosted purchases from Mexican factories, Mr. Flores’s salary nearly doubled to $68 a week in 2001. Even so, skilled workers in Mexico still earn far more relative to unskilled workers than they did before liberalization. “In 2004, those in the top 10th percentile earned 4.7 times more than those in the bottom 10th, compared with four times as much in 1987,” according to Columbia University economist Eric Verhoogen.

Gary Sick on Iran’s Accusation of Revolution Plot
The New York Times, May 22, 2007
The Islamic Republic of Iran yesterday accused a prominent American academic it imprisoned two weeks ago of conspiring to foment a velvet revolution there. A statement from the Intelligence Ministry that was reported on state television said that Haleh Esfandiari and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, along with similar institutions like the Soros Foundation, had been trying to establish a network that would work against the sovereignty of the country. “Another possible situation,” noted Gary Sick, a professor of Middle East politics at Columbia University and a one-time National Security Council advisor on Iran, “is that Tehran may be seeking a swap.”

Robert Barnett on Foreigner Restrictions in Tibet
The New York Times, May 15, 2007
China has tightened restrictions on travel by foreigners in the Himalayan region of Tibet after five Americans unfurled a banner at the foot of Mount Everest to protest against the staging of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Robert Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia University, said, “It may seem strange if five students with a camera can have such an impact on Chinese policy. But, in fact, restrictions have been increasing in Tibet over the last year, with intensified campaigns against the Dalai Lama, renewed bans on religion for all officials and, recently, public warnings about ‘Western hostile forces.’”

Cathy Nepomnyashchy on U.S.-Russia Adoptions
The Washington Post, May 11, 2007
Some U.S. couples hoping to adopt children from Russia are concerned that rising political tensions between the two countries could add further delays to their bids to become parents. “Adoption is seen as a fraught issue for Russians in general, which is therefore going to be particularly sensitive to changes in U.S.-Russia relations,” said Cathy Nepomnyashchy, director of the Harriman Institute of Russian, Eurasian and Eastern European Studies at Columbia University.

Steve Cohen on Bloomberg for NY Governor
The New York Sun, May 9, 2007
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday flatly denied reports that he is mulling a challenge to Governor Spitzer in 2010. A professor of public administration at Columbia University, Steve Cohen, said Mr. Bloomberg would be a formidable challenge to Mr. Spitzer, largely because he has been so popular in a city where 8 million New York State residents live.

Elliott Sclar on Bloomberg’s Greener City Plan
New York Daily News, May 6, 2007
The Bloomberg administration’s 25-year plan for a greener city released last week calls for identifying areas for development of 350,000 new housing units over the coming decade. And directly in the city’s sights are underdeveloped areas of Brooklyn, the South Bronx and northern Manhattan. Elliott Sclar, professor of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at Columbia University, applauded the plan’s forward-thinking but sees complications ahead. “The illusion is that if you increase the supply and demand stays constant, prices should fall,” he said. “The problem is that as we increase the density, we also increase the cost of providing services.”

Jeffrey Sachs on Sustainable Urban Farming
The New York Times, May 4, 2007
Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, who cited the PlanNYC statistic that another million people will be coming to New York City over the next 25 years. “Learning to manage our natural resources and in particular our renewable resources,” Sachs said, “will be essential if we’re going to get through this very, very difficult phase ahead.”

Edward Luck on Zalmay Khalilzad
Financial Times, April 30, 2007
Edward Luck, a Columbia University professor, who has advised Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said it was important that Mr. Khalilzad’s first real exposure to the UN came through his work in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is a good thing.

Sylvia Hewlett on Married Mothers in the Workforce
The New York Times, April 25, 2007
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics recently published its long-waited study, “Trends in Labor Force Participation of Married Mothers of Infants.” The number crunchers reported, the labor force participation of married mothers especially this with young children has stopped its advance. The Center for Work-Life Policy, a research organization founded by Sylvia Hewlett of Columbia, found that women lose an average of 18 percent of their earning power when they temporarily leave the work force.

Jeffrey Sachs on Controlling Malaria
The Wall Street Journal, April 24, 2007
“Malaria could be brought under control in Africa by 2010 at a cost of about $3 billion a year,” says Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. “The disease will kill one million to three million children this year, with 90% of the deaths in Africa. The tab could be picked up by the one billion people who live in wealthier countries, at a cost of about $3 per person a year,” he said.

Steve Cohen on Bloomberg’s Trip to Mexico
The New York Times, April 24, 2007
Mayor Bloomberg’s trip to Mexico today is adding fuel to the speculation that he is attempting to shore up his international credentials and raise his national profile in preparation for a White House run. A professor of public administration at Columbia University, Steve Cohen, cautioned against reading too much into Mr. Bloomberg’s travel schedule. “First there’s no question that the mayor of New York City is an international figure and this mayor has ambitions to be a national and world leader, but that’s a long way form saying he is going to run for president,” he said.

Jack Matlock Jr. on Boris Yeltsin
The New York Times, April, 24, 2007
“I met Boris Yeltsin shortly after I arrived in Moscow as the United States ambassador in April 1987. As we consider him in death, two very different pictures are emerging: in one he is the embodiment of the most important democratic revolution of the last half-century, and in the other he is a bumbling president who presided over Russia’s turbulent, still incomplete transition out of the Soviet Era. But I think that to truly understand the man and the events he set in motion it helps to look back to that period just before he burst onto the global political scene.”

Jeffrey Sachs on Clean Energy Technology
Scientific American, April 16, 2007
Byline: Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
“The key to solving the climate change crisis is technology. To accommodate the economic aspirations of the more than five billion people in the developing countries, the size of the world economy should increase by a factor of four to six by 2050; at the same time, global emissions of greenhouse gases will have to remain steady or decline to prevent dangerous changes to the climate.”

Stuart Gottlieb on Will Iraq be the Next Rwanda
The Washington Post, April 15, 2007
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid point to escalating sectarian violence between Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis as the primary justification for pulling out U.S. troops. According to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, “A premature American departure from Iraq would almost certainly produce greater sectarian violence and further deterioration of conditions.” That there is a growing consensus in both parties that the war was a mistake does not free the U.S. from its responsibility for creating the power vacuum in Iraq. Withdrawal in the face of a nearly certain humanitarian catastrophe would leave a black mark on America’s reputation and diminish its role in the world for generations.

Steve Cohen on Obama Fund-Raising in NY
The New York Sun, April 10, 2007
A professor of public administration at Columbia University, Steve Cohen, said “that by coming to New York to raise money, Mr. Obama appears to be mounting an aggressive campaign against Ms. Clinton. The city is considered the senator’s turf.”

Edward Luck on Ban Ki-moon’s first 100 days
The Associated Press, April 10, 2007
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s first 100 days as U.N. chief, by his own admission, have not been a honeymoon. Ban mishandled U.N. reaction to Saddam Hussein’s execution but has been successful inputting the international spotlight on the growing crisis in Darfur and keeping up the pressure for speedy action. Edward Luck, director of Columbia University’s Center on International Organization said, “The best secretaries-general combine advocacy for the U.N.’s core values with a very realistic and pragmatic sense of what can be accomplished at any point in time.”

Robert Jervis on U.S Intelligence Services
The Washington Post, April 9, 2007
“A historical analogy helped mislead U.S intelligence services about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the current war in Iraq,” said Robert Jervis a Columbia University scholar who reviewed the intelligence failure for the CIA.

Kenneth Prewitt on Foreign-Language Study Report
The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 6, 2007
The report was prepared by a committee convened to review the adequacy and effectiveness of language and foreign-affairs programs. It generally defended the programs and their long-term and broad-based approaches to training people to gain expertise in foreign languages and other cultures. “You don’t know what the critical language is going to be 20 years from now, and you need a reservoir,” Kenneth Prewitt, a member of the review committee and a professor of public affairs at Columbia University.

Andrea Bartoli on East Timor President
Agence France Presse, April 5, 2007
East Timor’s Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta, the troubled nation’s voice during two decades of Indonesian occupation, is a strong contender to win the presidential election Monday. After Indonesia invaded in 1075 he spent 24 years in exile, developing an international reputation as spokesman for the East Timorese resistance. Andrea Bartoli of the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University said, “Ramos-Horta is the perfect figurehead for the largely ceremonial post of president.”

Robert Jervis on Troubled Gulf Waters
Financial Times, April 3, 2007
Robert Jervis, professor of international relations at Columbia University says, “The three powers-Iran, the UK, and the US- are very aware that in the crowded waters of the Gulf where control of subordinates is not complete, you can get something you don’t want, as in ’88.”

Rashid Khalidi on Palestinian Shame
Reuters, April 1, 2007
Factional fighting, political bickering and a failure to establish law and order have turned Gaza into a symbol of Palestinian shame and are pushing the Palestinian national movement toward collapse, according to Palestinian intellectuals. “What has come to pass in Gaza is embarrassing and shameful,” said Rashid Khalidi, director of Columbia University’s Middle East Institute and a widely respected author of books on Palestinian history.

Kenneth Prewitt on Census Role in WWII Camps
USA Today, March 30, 2007
The Census Bureau turned over confidential information including names and addresses to help the Justice Department, secret Service and other agencies identify Japanese-Americans during World War II. The report comes as a revelation to Kenneth Prewitt, a public affairs professor at Columbia University who was Census director during the 2000 Census. He calls the new report “a remarkable piece of historical detective work” but is saddened by the findings because the Census prides itself on keeping all information confidential. “It is better to know than not know,” he says. “Knowing the facts will redouble the effort to assure it is not repeated.”

Jeffrey Sachs on the Group of Eight
Financial Times, March 30, 2007
Byline: Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
“As the Group of Eight industrial nations would like China and India to be effective donors in Africa, the G8 would do well to lead by example. The G8 can finally honor the 37-year old promise to provide 0.7 per cent of gross national product as aid. The G8 can finally provide African countries with a yearly timetable for the promised but elusive doubling of aid by 2010.”

Steve Cohen on Bloomberg’s Stance on Timetable for Iraq
The New York Sun, March 29, 2007
Mayor Bloomberg is inserting himself into the central debate of the 2008 presidential campaign, casting the legislation Democrats are backing in Congress to set a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq as irresponsible. “It’s almost like he’s defing the war as a management issue,” said professor of public administration at Columbia University, Steve Cohen. “He’s separating the policy issue from the management issue. That makes sense because his main advantage as a political figure is his expertise as a manger.”

Jagdish Bhagwati on Trade Relations between U.S. and China
Forbes, March 29, 2007
Sen. Byron Dorgan said the U.S. should require China to obtain annual approval of normal trade relations. In effect, he would like to see a return to China’s pre-2001 entry into the World Trade Organization. Economist Jagdish Bhagwati of Columbia University says he is completely opposed to Dorgan’s proposal. He argues that “China’s inclusion in the WTO, and hence permanent normal trade relations with the U.S., is good for both sides because the trade disputes can be resolved through an impartial dispute settlement mechanism.”

Joseph Stiglitz on Foreign Aid
The New York Times, March 25, 2007
All countries hold hard-currency reserves to cover their foreign debts or to use in case of a natural or a financial disaster. Al the money spent on T-bills could be earning far better returns invested elsewhere, or could be used to pay teachers and build highways at home, activities that bring returns of a different type. Joseph Stiglitz, the Columbia University economist proposes a solution in his recent book, Making Globalization Work. Adapting an old idea of John Maynard Keynes, he proposes a sort of insurance pool that would provide hard currency to the countries going through times of crisis. Money actually changes hands only if a country needs the reserve, and the recipient must repay what it has used.

Lawrence Potter on Seizure in Long-Contested Waters
Newsday, March 23, 2007
“Tehran and the new Iraqi government have never signed a treaty to replace the Shah of Iran’s agreement with Saddam, meaning the control of the waterway remains a matter of dispute, ”said Lawrence Potter, an associate professor of international affairs at Columbia University. “The problem is that nobody knows where the border is,” Potter said. “The British might have thought they were on their side, the Iranians might have thought they were on their side.”

David Dinkins on Columbia’s Manhattanville Project
The New York Beacon, March 21, 2007
Former Mayor David Dinkins, now a veteran Columbia University professor of public policy, has endorsed a plan for long-term growth in the old Manhattanville manufacturing zone of West Harlem. Dinkins said, “In my dozen years on faculty at Columbia, I have seen firsthand how essential it is to the city’s future and that of our neighbors that we have a great urban university as a partner in meeting that challenge.”

Steve Cohen on Edwards’ Energy Plan
USA Today, March 21, 2007
Steve Cohen, executive director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University said that the proposal still needs fleshing out, but it shows a commitment to dealing with the crisis. Cohen predicted other presidential candidates will present global-warming proposals. “I think it’s going to be the single most important environmental issue in the campaign,” he said.

Joseph Stiglitz’s Tour in China
People’s Daily, March 21, 2007
Joseph Stiglitz, the 2001 Nobel laureate has just given a speech in Guiyang, capital of SW China’s Guizhou Province, one of the most underdeveloped provinces in China. “We know that market economy has different models and there is no ‘one size fits all policies,’” said the 64-year old economist in his speech. Keen on the Chinese economy, the former World Bank chief economist scrutinized the Chinese government’s 11th five-year plan which described rural development at length and could hardly wait to find out what’s going on in China’s countryside.

Gary Sick on Regime Changes in Middle East
Newsday, March 19, 2007
Egypt’s government views Iran as a greater threat than the Egyptian people do and has been working behind the scenes, through an alliance with Washington and other Sunni Arab regimes, to counter Tehran’s influence. Some foreign policy experts-among them Gary Sick, an Iran specialist and former National Security Council staff member say this new alliance, which includes Israel, is intended to shift attention from Iraq and focus on Iran as the greatest threat facing the region. “The organizing principle of the new strategy is confrontation with and containment of Shia influence and specifically Iranian influence wherever it appears in the region,” said Sick, who now teaches at Columbia University.

Jeffrey Sachs on Extreme Poverty
Scientific American, March 18, 2007
Byline: Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University
“Around one billion people live in extreme poverty, suffering from economic deprivation so severe that they must struggle daily for survival. A corollary is that institutional improvements take considerable time, so the escape from extreme poverty is likely to take decades. Without denying the benefit of stronger institutions, I suggest that excessive focus on institutional reforms has gotten the policy sequencing more wrong than right. Often, more direct aid can dramatically reduce extreme poverty in just a few years.” 

Robert Jervis on Victor Cha
The Washington Post, March 17, 2007
As an academic, Victor Cha was skeptical about nuclear talks with North Korea. He considered the real value of U.S. engagement as a way to ‘expose the North’s true, malevolent intentions.’ Now as President Bush’s top adviser on North Korea, Cha is a prime player in shaping those talks. Robert Jervis, Cha’s thesis adviser at Columbia University and a professor of international politics, said Cha’s expertise puts him on the front line of U.S. efforts to deal with North Korea. “Outside of the people in the intelligence community, how many people do we have who read Korean?” Jervis asked. “How many people do we have who know much about Korea? Very few.”

Robbie Barnett on Ban of Buddhist Temples
Reuters, March 14, 2007
Tibetan Communist Party members and civil servants have been warned against visting temples in Lhasa this week, apparently to curb the unfading influence of the exiled Dalai Lama. “A ban on all public expression of religion by Lhasa citizens would be unprecedented. And it’s very strange that no reason had been given,” Robbie Barnett, a Tibetologist at Columbia University said.

Dirk Salomons on Darfur Genocide
WYPR News, March 13, 2007
Rebels from African ethnic groups are battling Sudanese government troops and Arab militias whom the U.N. says are recruited and armed by the central government. Dr. Dirk Salomons heads Columbia University’s Humanitarian Affairs program said, “They (U.N.) messed up in Rwanda, they have a history of ignoring major conflicts they never even had Vietnam on the agenda, if they don’t get this one right it clearly shows that this old 1945 model of international security has gone the way of the dodo.”

Fuchs, Buck-Luce, and Wolfe appointed to NYC Commission on Women’s Issues
News from the Blue Room, March 3, 2007
Ester Fuchs (Professor at SIPA and in Political Science), Carolyn Buck-Luce and Melinda Wolfe (SIPA Adjunct Professors) have been appointed to the New York City Commission on Women’s Issues.  “Each of the newly appointed Commissioners brings a diverse set of experiences and expertise to the strong dynamic and high standards set by our current Commissioners,” said CWI Chair Anne Sutherland.   The full press release is available.

Jeffrey Sachs on Climate Change
Time, March 19, 2007
Byline: Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University
“When climate-change skeptics mock the fear about the rise of a ‘few degrees’ in temperature, we should remind them of how it feels to have a 103 degree fever. A few degrees above normal can mean the difference between life and death, species survival and extinction. And a few actions on our part could make the difference between a healthy planet and one that falls into an environmental tailspin.”

Stephen Sestanovich on New Image for Russia
The New York Sun, March 13, 2007
“It may not be the Cold War II, but Russia’s image in America needs defrosting. When Putin appears on the cover of the Economist looking like Al Capone, holding a gas nozzle, made to look like a submachine gun, you know the Kremlin p.r. people have got work to do,” the George F. Kennan senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a professor of international diplomacy at Columbia University, Stephen Sestanovich, said.

Claudia Dreifus on Michael F. Summers
The New York Times, March 13, 2007
Byline: Claudia Dreifus, adjunct professor of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University
“There’s something striking about the laboratory of Michael F. Summers at the University of Maryland. It’s not the giant nuclear magnetic resonance machine that he uses to visualize molecules; it’s the faces of the people who work there. Fifteen of the 32 researchers are black. In the halls of American science, such representation is rare. When Dr. Summers is not in the lab, he takes to the road with the university president, Freeman A. Hrabowski III, pushing universities to set up programs for minority students who are inclined toward science.

Ester Fuchs on Bloomberg in 2008
The New York Sun, March 12, 2007
Mayor Bloomberg is 80% likely to launch a bid for the White House if the two major candidates come from the "extreme wings" of their party, one of his first-term advisers said.
The comment from a Columbia University professor, Ester Fuchs, keeps alive the notion that Mr. Bloomberg is mulling the possibility of entering the 2008 race.

Robert Barnett on Hawks Blocking Dalai Lama’s Return
Reuters, March 7, 2007
A Tibetan Communist has written to President Hu Jintao and condemned hawks for thriving on their opposition to the exiled Dalai Lama and for blocking his return. In his 2006 letter, Phuntso singled out retired Lt. Gen Yin Fatang, Tibet’s ex-party boss, for sticking to ‘wrong’ leftist policies. Robbie Barnett, a Tibetologist at Columbia University said, “Yin was behind some for the recent crackdowns in Tibet. He’s particularly associated with certain specific crackdowns, for example the demolition of the homes of 8,000 monks in Sichuan four years ago.”

Rashid Khalidi on Iraq’s New Oil Law
The Christian Science Monitor, March 5, 2007
During the 20th century, oil became the fulcrum of politics in the Middle East, with countries nationalizing their oil resources and winning better oil deals. The draft law “reverses everything that has happened in the Middle East since 1901,” charges Rashid Khalidi, director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. Khalidi doubts the draft law will pass parliament. “It is so manifestly against the interests of Iraq,” he says. If it does, though, he doesn’t expect the law to last.

Lisa Anderson on Executives in the Classroom
Crain’s New York Business, March 4, 2007
At Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, about 10% of full-time faculty members are ‘professors of practice’, and nearly 90% of part-time members are nonacademic. “All told, about a quarter of our courses are taught by practitioners,” says Lisa Anderson, the school’s dean.

Joseph Stiglitz on European Central Bank
Reuters, March 1, 2007
Nobel economics prize winner Joseph Stiglitz backed the role of politicians in helping shape policies in the euro zone. He told the European parliamentarians that a central bank’s independence and its mandate need to be carefully weighed in a democracy where inflationary levels, growth and unemployment rates affect citizens differently. “Where there are trade-offs, I worry about independence,” said Stiglitz, an economics professor at Columbia University.

Guillermo Calvo Profiled in "Finance and Development"
Finance and Development , March 2007
Guillermo Calvo, SIPA faculty member and Director of the Program in Economic Policy and Management, was profiled in the latest issue of the IMF's magazine, "Finance and Development". For the full text, click here.

Sharyn O’ Halloran on Tax Rate Cut
The New York Sun, February 28, 2007
The minority leader of the City Council, James Oddo, is calling for the formal hearings to begin this spring to examine the implications of cutting personal income tax rates in New York. A political science professor at Columbia University, Sharyn O’ Halloran said, “the idea of cutting personal income tax rates has not received much attention because it is difficult to reduce the city’s revenue base without identifying an alternative income source.” “Unless you are willing to cut public services, reducing income revenue streams is going to be problematic,” she said.

Edward Luck on U.N. Secretary General
The New York Times, February 28, 2007
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is installing tough new requirements for hundreds of jobs at the United Nations that he hopes will begin to dispel the reputation for inaction and bloat that has long dogged the institution, according to officials in his office. “This is real change,” said Edward Luck, a professor of international affairs at Columbia who has followed the United Nations for more than three decades. “This is a way to make top management accountable in ways that have never been tried before.”

Rashid Khalidi on Power Shift in Middle East
San Francisco Chronicle, February 25, 2007
“Iran would have been further away from dominating the region, because it would have been deterred by Iraq,” said Rashid Khalidi, director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia University. “By destroying what had formerly been the most powerful Arab country…we have thrust at Iran an even greater power than it (would have) otherwise had,” he said… “We started a particularly poisonous sectarian spiral downwards in the Middle East,” Khalidi said.

Rodolfo de la Garza on Hispanic Caucus
Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2007
“The idea of the caucus was to present ethnic unity back when people thought that was the only was they could be important,” says Columbia University’s Rodolfo de la Garza. “Those days are over.” Indeed, as the number of Latino elected officials has multiplied, so has the number of voices, and the unity has become something of a chimera.

Joseph Stiglitz on Globalization
The Times of London, February 18, 2007
Joseph Stiglitz, the Columbia University professor and Nobel Prize-winning economist says, “Globalization has been a double-edged sword. To those able and willing to seize the opportunities and manage globalization on their own terms, it has provided the basis of unprecedented growth. China and India have for more than a quarter century been growing at historically unprecedented rates with hundreds of millions of people moving out of poverty. They have taken advantage of globalization of knowledge and globalization of markets.”

Edward Luck on UN Chief
Financial Times, February 17, 2007
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations’ new secretary general, yesterday warned that an unprecedented global surge in UN peacekeeping operations had left its leadership impossibly overstretched and unable to cope without serious reform. Edward Luck, an international affairs professor at Columbia University who has been advising Mr. Ban said, “In retrospect there was probably more of a problem with presentation than substance…It’s a good sign that the more he explains the more the people are comfortable with it.”

Jeffrey Sachs on Global Warming
Reuters, February 16, 2007
Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and a U.N. anti-poverty adviser, said he “favored creating a World Environment Organization, but I don’t believe it’s necessary for solving this problem. Instead, the United Nations and existing agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse emissions could do the job if world leaders took them seriously enough. The problem with international agreements is that people think they are made to be ignored.”

Thomas Lansner on Viral Video and Communication Technologies
El Correo, February 15, 2007
Byline: Thomas R. Lansner, Adjunct Associate Professor, SIPA
"La guerra de Irak ha sido un terreno de prueba no sólo para las nuevas armas y tácticas de las partes en liza. Ha acelerado y configurado también el uso de nuevas tecnologías que reducen dramáticamente la distancia entre productores y consumidores de información en los conflictos, en política y en la vida de todos los días..."

Gary Sick on Iran’s Arms Role in Iraq
The New York Times, February 15, 2007
Mr. Bush has said that he has no intention of invading Iran and that any suggestion that was trying to provoke Iran ‘is just a wrong way to characterize the commander in chief’s decision to do what is necessary to protect our soldier’s in harms way.’ But experts say that the ratcheting up of accusations could provoke a confrontation. Gary Sick, an expert on Iran at Columbia University said, “there was a ‘danger of accidental war.’ If anything goes wrong, if something happens, there’s an unexplained explosion and we kidnap an Iranian, and the Iranians respond to that somehow, this could get out of control.”

Joseph Stiglitz on Economic Expansion
The New York Times, February 13, 2007
The early ‘90s were characterized by a building bust; the current one has been supported by a housing bubble. The boom of the second half of the 1990s were underpinned by an Internet-driven investment bubble, but most technology stocks today are far below their earlier highs. “In both situations we had overinvestment, now in housing, then in fiber optics,” said Joseph Stiglitz, a professor of economics at Columbia who was Mr. Clinton’s chief economic advisor from 1995-1997.

Calvo on Economic Trends in Developing World
Financial Times, February 8, 2007
Guillermo Calvo, professor of economics, international and public affairs at Columbia University, thinks there will be another serious slump in the developing world. He says that the risk premiums in Latin America are too low. "There is no indication in the region that there has been a big push for major structural reform since 1998," he says. "Everything seems to be going in the right direction for Latin America but much of the growth you see is due in large extent to much better external conditions. If you take away some of those better external conditions, such as favourable terms of trade, the growth rate in the region is actually very poor."

Robert Jervis on Outcome of Iraq
The Washington Post, February 7, 2007
“The U.S. will withdraw its troops from Iraq at some point, and when it does, if not earlier, the situation is likely to deteriorate badly. This could be a truly dreadful time-it could be a tsunami sweeping over the entire region,” said Robert Jervis, a professor of political science at Columbia University.

Albert Fishlow on Brazil’s Economic Growth
Reuters, February 5, 2007
Brazil’s economy is doomed to lag its emerging market peers in the BRIC group for years-hemmed in by fiscal slippage that could delay a boost to investment grade status, a flawed government growth plan and a Congress that is stifling deep reforms. “The government has really not provided a plan of action that is capable of ensuring this economic acceleration,” said economist Albert Fishlow, director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University.

Lisa Anderson on Conflict in the Middle East
Science, February 2, 2007
Lisa Anderson points out that despite the antiquity of conflict in the region, casualties have actually been small compared with many other war zones. Why do we get so anxious about it? Perhaps, she contends, because the general region is the nexus of several modern civilizations and persistent conflict there is perceived to be particularly undermining and threatening.

Gary Sick on US Strategy with Iran
The Newshour With Jim Lehrer, January 29, 2007
In an interview with Gwen Ifell, Professor Gary Sick commented on US policy regarding Iran, “Well, I think it's part of a broader strategy, which actually has been under way now for several months, which involves basically the United States building a new coalition in the Middle East, between itself and Israel, and some of the conservative Arab states, the Sunni Arab states.” To read transcript and/or listen click here.

Michael Doyle on the UN Secretary General
The Christian Science Monitor, January 31, 2007
“… even as he wins some initial praise, Ban is also raising some questions with his first appointments, while leading others to wonder if he isn't coming off as too much of a big-powers secretary- general. Ban, they worry, is showing signs of paying deference to a time-honored system that divvies up key posts among the powers that formed the UN system six decades ago - the US, Britain, and France in particular. ‘So far, there's been some of the same division of senior posts on the traditional great-power spoils system that we've seen in the past,’ says Michael Doyle, a former senior UN official now at Columbia University in New York.”

Joseph Stiglitz on the Main Problem at Davos
The New York Times, January 27, 2007
Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor said, “the worst fallacy was probably the notion that the trade talks, officially known as the Doha Development Agenda, will accelerate growth in poor countries.”

Rashid Khalidi on Recent Bombing in Baghdad
Associated Press, January 26, 2007
“Clearly the idea is maximum mayhem. I think what they were trying to kill is people, and the maximum number of people and that’s just the tactic that they’ve been using,” said Rashid Khalidi, head of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University.

Stephen Sestanovich on Wartime Strategy for Iraq
The Washington Post, January 24, 2007
Byline: Stephen Sestanovich, professor of international diplomacy at Columbia University
“Americans are rummaging through the past for lessons to help us in Iraq. There’s just one problem: The two unsuccessful wars we’ve fought since World War II don’t teach the same lesson. In Korea and Vietnam, presidents had to salvage wars that had gone bad, and their decisions provoked fierce congressional opposition. But here the stories diverge. In Korea, Congress demanded that Truman do more to win. In Vietnam, it wanted to keep Nixon from doing too much. Bush has clearly decided he won’t be the wartime leader who responds to setbacks by doing too little.”

Jeffrey Sachs on Millennium Development Goals
Associated Press, January 17, 2007
“Directing money to specific problems and expecting specific results has proven effective, especially in improving people’s health,” said Jeffrey Sachs, special advisor to the United Nations on fighting poverty and director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. “I am a strong believer that targeted investments to the needs of the poorest of the poor are the core strategy of meeting the Millennium Development Goals in fighting poverty,” he said during a visit to Kenya.

Jeffrey Sachs on Kyoto Protocol
Scientific American, January 14, 2007
Byline: Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
“Late in 2006 several events moved the U.S. and other countries to serious global negotiations to control greenhouse gas emissions. It is therefore timely to ask what a meaningful global agreement would entail. A solid starting point is the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the international treaty that binds countries to act on the problem and under which specific measures, such as the Kyoto Protocol, are adopted. The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, took a short-term view of a long-term objective and as a result lost clarity, credibility and support along the way. The key now is to move beyond it.”

Richard Betts on Iraq vs. Vietnam
The Washington Post, January 14, 2007
Byline: Leslie H. Gelb and Richard Betts, Director of Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
“Iraq is not Vietnam, yet history seems intent on harnessing them together. Even though Iraq’s story is far from complete, each day raises the odds that the U.S. fate in Iraq could eventually be the same as it was in Vietnam-defeat. The differences are clear. The policy consensus over Vietnam ran deeper and lasted longer than on the Iraq conflict. While Johnson and his advisers slogged deeper into Vietnam with realistic pessimism, Bush and his colleagues plunged ahead in Iraq with reckless optimism.”

Gary Sick on US Confrontation with Iran
The Christian Science Monitor, January 12, 2007
“If the increase in US force levels in Iraq represents an escalation of the war as some insist then the extension of US power, directly or indirectly, against Iran would represent an escalation of a different sort and no less momentous in terms of its potential long-range implications,” said Gary Sick, an Iran expert at Columbia University.

Robert Shapiro on Division over Iraq War
The New York Times, January 12, 2007
Robert Shapiro, a political scientist and public opinion expert at Columbia University, cautioned that “congressional leaders need to work to keep disagreement over what to do in Iraq from spilling over into broader partisan gridlock. The danger for everyone, Democratic and Republican, is that this division on the war leads to partisan conflict of the sort Democrats wanted to diminish after the last election.”

Steve Cohen on Giuliani’s Presidential Bid
The New York Times, January 10, 2007
“It’s not just the companies, it’s the global nature of his work and how much he has to travel to foreign countries when he needs to be in this country raising money,” said Steve Cohen, a Columbia University professor of politics. “He’s going to have to make a decision very, very soon about running, because it’s very hard to run a business or even be a full-time public official and run for president,” said Cohen.

Ester Fuchs on Governor Spitzer’s first days in office
WNYC: The Brian Lehrer Show, January 2, 2007
“It’s a new year, New York has a new governor and nationally, the 110th Congress convenes on Thursday. Analysis of Eliot Spitzer’s first day on the job and a preview of the new session on Capitol Hill with freshman Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand. …Douglas Muzzio, professor of Public Affairs at Baruch College and Ester Fuchs, professor of international and public affairs and political science, the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University and former advisor to Mayor Bloomberg, preview Governor Spitzer's first day on the job.”

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